Orlando Brown Jr. agrees to 4-year deal with Cincinnati Bengals | CBS Sports

We got breaking news into the HQ newsroom and it's Orlando Brown, the left tackle now ex of the Kansas City Chiefs agreeing to a deal covering four years with the Cincinnati Bengals worth some $64 million. It's a front loaded deal that includes a $31 million signing bonus. Let's get some insight and bring in LeJay Duzable, a CBS NFL analyst. LeJay, think about the quarterbacks he'll now protect when he puts on a Cincinnati uniform. It's Lamar Jackson, then Patrick Mahomes, now Joe Burrow. What does this mean for Burrow and the Bengals? Jim, this is massive and I know a lot of people thought that Orlando Brown may be assigned, would assign the first day of tampering period. I know he was linked to a few teams, whether it was the Denver Broncos or Chicago Bears, but the Cincinnati Bengals playing chess, not checkers and signing Orlando Brown.

And they said the hiccup of him not signing up until this point is because he wanted to be treated like a left tackle, wanted left tackle money. I think this deal comes around 16 mil per year, but front loaded. So he's going to see a lot of that money up front. And if you look at what the Bengals Achilles heels have been, Jim, it's been protection. It's been the offensive line, right? Now they went and tried to rectify that this off season by bringing a few guys in. Kyle Collins ends up getting hurt at right tackle. Jonah Williams has stayed hurt for the Cincinnati Bengals, missed all his rookie year, second year missed six games and then miss part of the playoffs last year when he got hurt.

So Joe Burrow really felt those effects in the playoffs when he was getting pressured time in and time out. And let's not forget what he went through last year, not this past season, the year before that, how many times did this guy get sacked? Now you got Orlando Brown, right? A perennial pro bowler to add to the mix. You're chasing the Kansas City Chiefs. What do you do? You sure up your quarterbacks blindside by getting one of the best tackles in football. This is a massive deal for the Cincinnati Bengals as they try to dethrone the Kansas City Chiefs. Yeah, you've seen games that Burrow has won where he's been sacked double digit times, but you just touched on this really. It's also a move that sort of weakens the Chiefs, their primary competitor in the AFC.

He leaves KC to go Cincinnati. So how much more important does that make this move from the Bengal standpoint? It's big and Kansas City had kind of moved on because I believe Orlando Brown wanted to reset the market at the left tackle position. What they did instead is they signed Joanne Taylor from the Jacksonville Jaguars and there's rumors that they're going to slide him to left tackle. Now I've talked to a few offensive linemen, a few offensive linemen, and they said that's not an easy transition to make, especially when you've been playing the right side this whole time. But if there's anybody that can do this, right, it's Andy Reed into Kansas City Chiefs. So I'm believing in that. But getting Orlando Brown to your point, right, leave the Kansas City Chiefs after just winning a Super Bowl, go to the Nemesis and the Cincinnati Bengals who had to up until this year in the AFC Championship game had owned the Kansas City Chiefs.

That is big. Again, you get that blindside protected from Joe Burrow at a with a young star at left tackle who gets to play the position he wants. Now the thing for Cincinnati is, will they move Jonah Williams back to move him over to right tackle? He's predominantly play left tackle, but has played right tackle in the past. I think that's the move they ultimately make. But this is a massive get for the Cincinnati Bengals because it makes you tougher in the run game. But then you also protecting your quarterback who a lot of people say is a top three quarterback in the NFL. I'm not going to say a lot of people.

I'm saying he's a top three quarterback in the NFL. If you want to protect that guy and make sure he's safe on his blindside, what better way to do it than to get one of the best left tackles in all the football in Orlando Brown. Yeah, that was their biggest need. They have the skilled position players for the Bengals. You saw in the playoff game against the Chiefs where it was breakdowns on the offensive line that didn't allow Burrow to make the comeback. I know his nickname Joe Cool and he generally gets it done. But how much more confident will this make this quarterback knowing he has a tackle like this? I mean, Jim, the guy that's protecting him, his nickname is Zeus.

Zeus Brown. That's all you need to know about Orlando Brown. It's literally hard to get around him. And I know he's going to have a chip on his shoulder because he wasn't able to reset the market. The Chiefs didn't fall to his demands as far as what he wanted to get in free agency. So now he's going to the Arch Nemesis, right? He's going to the Cincinnati Bengals. And if you're Joe Burrow, you have a lot more confidence because unlike the other two titles out there with Lyle Collins and Jonah Williams, Orlando Brown has been available to play games.

So now you've got a guy that is consistently healthy, that's going to be on your blind side and protects you. You're going to feel a lot more easy in that pocket where you might be counting your head two, three, four, I got to let the ball go. Now that I got Orlando Brown, Zeus Brown protecting me, I maybe could take that extra tick and hold the ball and be able to find my receivers down the field. Find T Higgins, find Jamar Chase. So Joe Burrow, they call him Joe Cool because nothing rattles him. I think he's going to be a little bit more comfortable in that pocket now. It'll be even cooler with Zeus in front of him.

It's four years, 64 million Orlando Brown from the Chiefs now to the Bengals. He's CBS NFL analyst, Lige Dujabal, Lige. We appreciate the insight. All right, this is what you got here. Most wins as a starter since 2019. You can see Brown with Travis Kelsey and Patrick Mahomes right there at the top of the list. Lige just talked about the fact that this guy is available.

He plays and he plays in all those games that the great tight end and the great quarterback have played with as well with the Chiefs, but he leaves them now for their arch rivals in the AFC, the Cincinnati Bengals. We'll be right back.

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